hformat(1)

1HFORMAT(1)                  General Commands Manual                 HFORMAT(1)
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NAME

6       hformat - create a new HFS filesystem and make it current
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SYNOPSIS

9       hformat [-f] [-l label] destination-path [partition-no]
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DESCRIPTION

12       hformat is used to write a new HFS filesystem to a volume. A UNIX path‐
13       name to the volume's destination must be specified. The destination may
14       be  either  a block device or a regular file, but it must already exist
15       and be writable.
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17       An optional label can be specified to name the volume. The name must be
18       between 1-27 characters and cannot contain a colon (:). By default, the
19       volume will be named Untitled.
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21       If the  destination  medium  is  partitioned,  one  partition  must  be
22       selected  to receive the filesystem. If there is only one HFS partition
23       on the medium, it will be selected by default. Otherwise,  the  desired
24       partition  number  must be specified (as the ordinal nth HFS partition)
25       on the command-line. The size of the partition determines the  size  of
26       the resulting volume.
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28       Partition  number  0  can be specified to format the entire medium as a
29       single filesystem without a partition map, erasing any existing  parti‐
30       tion  information.  Since  this will destroy all the partitions, the -f
31       option must be specified to force this operation  if  the  medium  cur‐
32       rently contains a partition map.
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34       If  the medium is not partitioned (or if partition 0 is specified), the
35       size or capacity of the medium determines the  size  of  the  resulting
36       volume.
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38       The  new  volume  will be empty and will become "current" so subsequent
39       commands will refer to it. The current working directory for the volume
40       is set to the root of the volume.
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EXAMPLES

43       % hformat /dev/fd0
44              If a floppy disk is available as /dev/fd0, this formats the disk
45              as an HFS volume named Untitled.  (N.B. The floppy must  already
46              have received a low-level format by other means.)
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48       % dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.hfs bs=1k count=800
49       % hformat -l "Test Disk" disk.hfs
50              This  sequence  creates  an  800K  HFS  volume image in the file
51              disk.hfs in the current directory, and names it Test Disk.
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53       % hformat -l "Loma Prieta" /dev/sd2 1
54              If a SCSI disk is available as /dev/sd2,  this  initializes  the
55              first  HFS partition on the disk (which must already exist) with
56              a new filesystem, naming the resulting volume Loma Prieta.
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58       % hformat -f /dev/sd2 0
59              This causes the medium accessible as /dev/sd2 to be  reformatted
60              as a single HFS volume, ignoring and erasing any existing parti‐
61              tion information on the medium. The -f option must be  specified
62              if  the  medium  is currently partitioned; otherwise the command
63              will fail.
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NOTES

66       This command does not create or alter partition maps, although  it  can
67       erase  them (as described above). Any partition number specified on the
68       command line must already exist.
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70       The smallest volume size which can be formatted with hformat is 800K.
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FILES

76       $HOME/.hcwd
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AUTHOR

79       Robert Leslie <rob@mars.org>
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83HFSUTILS                          08-Nov-1997                       HFORMAT(1)